P'r'aps this may lead to another mystery,"and he began to unfold the paper with a smile.But the smile ceased as his eye suddenly caught his own name.
A dozen lines were written in pencil on what seemed to be a blank leaf originally torn from some book.He trembled so that he was obliged to sit down to read these words:--"When you get this keep away from the woods.Dunn and another man are in deadly pursuit of you and your companion.I overheard their plan to surprise you in our cabin.DON'T GO THERE,and Iwill delay them and put them off the scent.Don't mind me.God bless you,and if you never see me again think sometimes of "TERESA."His trembling ceased;he did not start,but rose in an abstracted way,and made a few deliberate steps in the direction Teresa had gone.Even then he was so confused that he was obliged to refer to the paper again,but with so little effect that he could only repeat the last words,"think sometimes of Teresa."He was conscious that this was not all;he had a full conviction of being deceived,and knew that he held the proof in his hand,but he could not formulate it beyond that sentence."Teresa"--yes,he would think of her.She would explain it.And here she was returning.
In that brief interval her face and manner had again changed.
Her face was pale and quite breathless.She cast a swift glance at Dunn and the paper he mechanically held out,walked up to him,and tore it from his hand.
"Well,"she said hoarsely,"what are you going to do about it?"He attempted to speak,but his voice failed him.Even then he was conscious that if he had spoken he would have only repeated,"think sometimes of Teresa."He looked longingly but helplessly at the spot where she had thrown the paper,as if it had contained his unuttered words.
"Yes,"she went on to herself,as if he was a mute,indifferent spectator--"yes,they're gone.That ends it all.The game's played out.Well!"suddenly turning upon him,"now you know it all.Your Nellie WAS here with him,and is with him now.Do you hear?Make the most of it;you've lost them--but here I am.""Yes,"he said eagerly--"yes,Teresa."
She stopped,stared at him;then taking him by the hand led him like a child back to his couch."Well,"she said,in half-savage explanation,"I told you the truth when I said the girl wasn't at the cabin last night,and that I didn't know her.What are you glowerin'at?No!I haven't lied to you,I swear to God,except in one thing.Did you know what that was?To save him I took upon me a shame I don't deserve.I let you think I was his mistress.You think so now,don't you?Well,before God to-day--and He may take me when He likes--I'm no more to him than a sister!I reckon your Nellie can't say as much."She turned away,and with the quick,impatient stride of some caged animal made the narrow circuit of the opening,stopping a moment mechanically before the sick man,and again,without looking at him,continuing her monotonous round.The heat had become excessive,but she held her shawl with both hands drawn tightly over her shoulders.Suddenly a wood-duck darted out of the covert blindly into the opening,struck against the blasted trunk,fell half stunned near her feet,and then,recovering,fluttered away.She had scarcely completed another circuit before the irruption was followed by a whirring bevy of quail,a flight of jays,and a sudden tumult of wings swept through the wood like a tornado.She turned inquiringly to Dunn,who had risen to his feet,but the next moment she caught convulsively at his wrist;a wolf had just dashed through the underbrush not a dozen yards away,and on either side of them they could hear the scamper and rustle of hurrying feet like the outburst of a summer shower.A cold wind arose from the opposite direction,as if to contest this wild exodus,but it was followed by a blast of sickening heat.Teresa sank at Dunn's feet in an agony of terror.
"Don't let them touch me!"she gasped;"keep them off!Tell me,for God's sake,what has happened!"He laid his hand firmly on her arm,and lifted her in his turn to her feet like a child.In that supreme moment of physical danger,his strength,reason,and manhood returned in their plenitude of power.He pointed coolly to the trail she had quitted,and said,"The Carquinez Woods are on fire!"